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Syntactic And Lexico-semantic Analyses Of Selected Sms Text Messages Among The University Of Ilorin Students
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1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose
of this study is to contribute to the body of knowledge through an
investigation into the combination of word and their meaning in
conveying an SMS. This work seeks to examine selected personal text
messages sent by the students of the University of Ilorin between the
ages of 18-25 years, identify the word-formation processes, lexical
features and relations that exist among the lexemes that are contained
in them. Also, how the knowledge of the lexical and semantic relations
contribute to the meaning of the text messages would be examined. This
will help to promote a better understanding of text messages.
1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This work will focus basically on the analysis of thirty personal text
messages of the University of Ilorin students between the ages of 18-25
years. The analysis will be carried out through an identification of the
word-formation processes, lexical features and relations and the word
sequences among the words that make up these messages. The study will
also take a look at the sequencing of words in the messages and how all
these features contribute to the understanding of these messages.
1.5 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
This work is based on an analysis of SMS text messages using a
Lexico-semantic approach. Several other studies have been conducted on
SMS text messages. Among these are Awonusi (2004), who did “A
Sociolinguistic study of SMS text messages as a register in Nigerian
Englishâ€, Egbe (2005), discussed the “Aspects of the Grammar of SMS text
messagesâ€, Alabi, (2010b), wrote on “Stylistic creativity via schemes:
Tropes, Lexical cohesion and Descriptive Adjectives in SMS text
messaging among Nigerian university Graduatesâ€.
However, going by the above, it can be observed that SMS text messages
have been studied from various fields of linguistics ranging from
Sociolinguistics, to Grammar, to Stylistics, etc. This study is however
adding to the knowledge and analysis of SMS text messages in the
Lexico-semantic field. This work will be of great relevance and a
reference point to students of communication studies, users of SMS text
messaging as a medium of communication and students of English language
and literature.
1.6 METHODOLOGY
The selection of data for analysis in this study has been done randomly.
The sources for the data for analysis in this study are text messages
sent by the University of Ilorin students between the ages of 18-25
years. Out of these text messages, this work will focus on personal text
messages (Chiluwa,2007, p.98 as cited by Alabi,2010b,p.1). Thirty
personal text messages have been selected for analysis in this work.
These messages represent the whole body of personal text messages and
are considered suitable for the purpose for which this work is
conducted. The analysis ofthese messages will be done through an
identification of various elements that characterize lexemes i.e.
word-formation processes, lexical relations and features and word
sequencing in contributing to the messages they pass across as a result
of their co-occurrence in an expression.
1.7 DATA DESCRIPTION
SMS was first used in December 1992 by a 22-year-old named Neil
Papworth. The concept of SMS was developed by Friedhelm Hillebrand,
Bernard Ghillebaert and Oculy Silaban in 1984, in the Franco-German GSM
cooperation. However, following the inception of the Global System of
Mobile communication (GSM) in Nigeria, in the year 2001, Alabi, (2010b),
SMS text messaging has become a major medium of passing across
information from one person to another irrespective of the distance
between the ‘sender’ an ‘receiver’. MTN, which happened to be the first
GSM Company in Nigeria, commenced its commercial services in August
2001. This commencement brought the Short Message Service (SMS) to
limelight in the Nigerian communication system. Ever since then, text
messaging has taken different turns.
The data for analysis in this study are personal text messages, as
described by Chiluwa (2007) as “well wishing messages and messages that
are used to express emotionsâ€. Thirty of these messages have been
selected for analysis using certain tools that will be discussed in the
next chapter.
1.8 SUMMARY
So far
in this chapter, an insight into the variables of the topic of this
study has been created, the purpose, scope, justification and
methodology for this study have been discussed. A more extensive and
detailed discussion of the approach to the study and its elements is
hoped to be discussed in the next chapter, which is the literature
review.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ] Words form the basis for a Linguistic analysis at any level of language study. The aim of this essay was to identify the various Lexical and Syntactic elements that make up personal text messages among the students of the University of Ilorin. Lexical features, Lexical relations, Word-formation processes and Word Sequences were employed to unravel the Lexical and Syntactic elements contained in selected text messages. Among the findings in the work were that nouns are the most prominent lexic ... Continue reading---
